This invention relates generally to clothes treating apparatus, and, more particularly, to methods and systems for detecting dryness of clothes in an apparatus.
At least some known fabric care machines include a cabinet that houses an outer tub for containing a quantity of cleaning fluid, a perforated clothes basket within the tub, and a storage tank for storing the cleaning fluid. A drive and motor assembly is mounted underneath the stationary outer tub to rotate the basket within the tub. Generally, the cleaning machine performs a cleaning cycle followed by a spin cycle and a drying cycle.
In at least one cleaning cycle, the clothes are saturated with cleaning fluid and tumbled in an amount of cleaning fluid. The cleaning fluid dissolves certain fluid soluble soils. The clothes are tumbled to dislodge some insoluble soils and generally to increase the effectiveness of the cleaning process. Due to the cost of certain cleaning fluids, the fluid is not discarded, rather, the fluid, such as dry cleaning fluid, is filtered to remove particulates, such as lint, cleaned, and returned to the storage tank for reuse.
In a typical drying cycle, the cleaning fluid is drained from the tub and fluid remaining in the clothes after spinning is evaporated from the clothes to dry the clothes. At least some known fabric care machines perform the drying cycle for a predetermined time period for obtaining a desired dryness level of the clothes. However, the appropriate time period is varied based on the types of chemical that is used to wash or rinse the clothes, and a drying time period shorter or longer than the necessary time period may result in unsatisfied dryness result of the clothes or undesired energy wastage.